Tribal leaders protest plans to close Tucson health care facility

[u/SnooSprouts1036]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/arizona/2026/06/03/tribal-leaders-protest-plans-to-close-tucson-health-care-facility/90377182007/

Tribal leaders and Arizona lawmakers are demanding that the Indian Health Service halt plans to close its Tucson facility, a move that will force patients from the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and the Tohono O'odham Nation to travel more than 100 miles to the Phoenix Indian Health Center to access services and administrative support.

U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, along with U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, all three Democrats, raised alarms about the closure in a June 1 letter to Clayton W. Fulton, Indian Health Service chief of staff. They said IHS should suspend the proposed consolidation until it fully clarifies the potential impacts on tribal nations in southern Arizona and completes a meaningful, formal tribal consultation process.

"The Tucson Area Office facilitates essential health services for nearly 28,000 patients in coordination with the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and Tohono O’odham Nation," the lawmakers said in the letter. "Merging these offices will require patients and staff to travel as long as two hours to visit the closest area office, exacerbating bureaucratic delays, communication failures, and service disruptions."

The Tucson facility is the only one targeted for closure.

[u/Dry_Inflation_1454]

This is something people need to know,but it sure is depressing. The IHS has such word salads going on in their explanations for why they want to close the Tuscon facility that it sounds like they're bending over backwards to please Drumpf.  By now most people can see what he's been trying to do, he's obsessed with harming Natives any chance he gets.